Stealing/buying from SB post-flop in MTTs

I honestly don't know is this is a well known play in MTT's but I've done this a few times in a few different games with success and I'm wondering if it's a good play. I guess you can say it's very similar to an UTG steal, but it's done from the small blind and after the flop instead of post-flop. You're still buying from a first to act position.

I'm not going to go digging through past hands for examples so I'll just make-one up. Lets say blinds are 75/150 and You're small blind with K8s. It's folded to button who just calls, you complete and the BB checks.

The flop is 2s, 5h, 9d

Now, I tend to believe this is a great flop for your hand even if you've comepletely missed everything. Why? Because it's very unlikely your opponents have hit anything on this flop either. So, at a flop like this, I would throw out a little over a 1/2 pot bet to try and buy the pot right then on there knowing that it's possible my opponents have nothing either. With 3 players in a hand and this flop, it's unlikely anyone has a 9, has hit anything on the flop, or is holding an over pair. BB is checking a huge range of hands and button calling with a decent range, it's very likely that it's going to be checked down to the turn on a dry flop like this. And I don't want to see a turn if I think I can this flop now for 1 main reason:

There are too many turn cards that can hit that'll ruin my chances of taking this pot. Any over card that hits, straight card, or flush card is very likely to entice action if I attempt to steal. So, now I'll be forced to check and hope to go to maybe get lucky at a showdown. Very unlikely I'll win the hand if that happens. So, why give up an easy pot up for grabs by checking and being likely forced into a check-fold situation when I can easily win a decent pot uncontested.

This is a 'who can pull the trigger first?' sort of play.

Of course this works best on dry, uncoordinated flops and would depend on your opponents. Though, I might make the play with a 'scare' card showing. Maybe a board of 5, 7, J for example. But never on a board like QsAs5c.

...So, hmmm...a good play to add to the MTT arsenal or will I just be spewing chips?

Although I think stealing from the SB postflop is definitely profitable in a wide range of situations, I'm just wondering why you don't think anyone could have a 9. The BB could have any 9 obv and the button could be limping with 8-9 suited, 9-10 suited.

On that flop I would probably tend to check it and try to steal on the turn if it blanked again. I know it takes away your chances to win the pot but I think you still have a good chance of getting called when you bet this flop.

If your opponent has shown tendency to surrender the pot a disproportionate number of times I guess it can work occasionally, but I don't like it.

The best case scenario is that he folds and you pick up 1.5 bets. Worst case scenario is that he calls, you are first to act for the entire hand, you are playing a big pot, and you haven't defined his hand at all, and will have no idea how hard the flop or subsequent streets hit him. If you are deep stacked, and you hit middle pair, you could get sucked into a really big pot that you are destined to lose. You almost need to put in an oversized bet to ensure that you pick up the blind, but the more you commit, the more often it needs to work to be profitable.

Added value to surrendering the SB---you will get more respect from players who are paying attention, and they should surrender more often to your button steals. Look at it this way, if you raise the SB and the Button every orbit, you aren't going to get credit for a very narrow range, and you are begging people to play back at you.

Now late in a tourney, I'll open-shove from SB with a pretty wide range, since you only need to get the bet past one player. Particularly profitable if there are antes, and you have about 15 or so blinds left.

I do not like this play for a few obvious reasons. First of all a limp preflop in the SB with a bad hand is just barf. What if the BB raises pre? You SHOULD fold, and if you dont you have to play the rest of the hand OOP. Even if the BB does check pre, you are still OOP in a 3 way pot with a hand that rarely hits the flop hard. If you do end up with a piece of the flop you can be SO dominated so often.

If you are going to play this hand, raise it up preflop to at least 4.5 BB's and c-bet virtually 100% of flops. This eliminates the limped-pot-not-knowing-where-you-are fiascos you will find yourself in.